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Cameron Norcross, raised by the silver and blue, now tries to topple Nevada

Cameron Norcross got up early every day and headed to his cubicle at the Eldorado Resort Casino.

It was his first job after college and the former Wolf Pack football player was now working in human resources. After punching the clock to leave after a full day of work, he’d shed his dress shirt and tie and hop on the freeway to drive to Wooster High School to coach the Colts’ offensive and defensive line.

Norcross quickly learned two things about his apparent life after football.

First: “I’m not good sitting behind a desk and not being able to yell and be emotional.”

Second: “I didn’t want to wear a tie to work every day.”

So, Norcross quit that job and returned to Nevada to be a graduate assistant in 2001, knowing full well getting a paid assistant job would be a tough road. But Norcross was fine with that. After all, he was used to it. He walked on to the Nevada football team from tiny White Pine High School in Ely and eventually became an All-Big West center.

He simply knew a whistle suited him better than a tie. And nearly two decades after ditching his cubicle to take a chance at coaching, Norcross will meet the Wolf Pack again Saturday afternoon when his Vanderbilt Commodores host Nevada in his alma mater's second game ever against an SEC opponent.

Norcross knows he wouldn’t be where he is today – one of the top offensive line assistants in the nation coaching in the best conference in the country – without his time at Nevada.

After a five-year playing career and two seasons as a grad assistant, Norcross was a full-time Wolf Pack assistant from 2003-11 before making the difficult decision to leave his home state for a stint at Fresno State from 2012-15. He parlayed that into his current position at Vanderbilt.

Norcross credits Chris Ault, whom he played and coached under, for preparing him for life.

“Coach Ault instilled an attitude of fearlessness that you can beat anyone and that you’re tougher than anyone, but more importantly nothing in this life that can happen to you can affect you harder than what we went through at that time,” Norcross said. “Being a walk-on and playing for Coach Ault and the Wolf Pack, it kind of prepared me for life and how to deal with adversity in my professional life and in my personal life.”

Cameron Norcross played at Nevada and began his coaching career with the Wolf Pack but will battle the team on the opposite sideline Saturday.(Photo: Vanderbilt athletics)

While Norcross said this week’s game against the Wolf Pack will be like any other on the schedule – “we have to work our tails off to be one-point better than them,” he said – Norcross also called Nevada “a special place to me.” As a kid, Norcross was a bigger fan of BYU than Nevada – Ely is closer Provo than Reno – and was more aligned with UNLV than Nevada because of the Rebels’ elite basketball team.

But when it came time to pick a college out of high school, Nevada was the easy choice.

“What it came down to was the tradition between the University of Nevada and UNLV, and it really wasn’t even close,” Norcross said. “Coach Ault built something special and I remember the first time walking into Mackay Stadium I could tell it was a special place. I said, ‘I’m going to play here the rest of my career.’”

Norcross was not, however, destined to coach his entire career at Nevada. In nine seasons coaching Nevada’s offensive line, Norcross mentored 16 all-conference players, including eight on the first team. He was part of the staff that invented the Pistol offense, which proliferated across the country and into the NFL, and was a member of Nevada's 2010 “Dream Team” that went 13-1 and finished 11th in the nation.

But believing he had to leave Reno to grow his career, Norcross left for rival Fresno State in 2012.

“The hardest thing I’ve done in my life is walk into Coach Ault’s office and tell him I was leaving,” Norcross said. “All three of my kids were born in Reno. My wife is a grad, my brother is a grad, my sister is a grad, I have cousins who are grads. My roots run deep there. It was hard, but it was a thing I had to do for myself and my family. I had to make that change so I wasn’t viewed in this profession as a guy who could only do one thing. I felt like I had to expand my résumé.”

Following four seasons in the San Joaquin Valley, including two Mountain West titles, Norcross was lured by Vanderbilt to the Power 5 level in 2016. The Commodores jumped from nine rushing touchdowns to 26 in Norcross' first season as their offensive line coach while upping their scoring average from 15.2 to 23 points per game. Last year, the offense produced 24.6 points per game, its most since 2013. In this year’s season opener, Vanderbilt topped Middle Tennessee, 35-7, with the Commodores leaning heavily on its run game behind a veteran line.

One of the key matchups in Saturday’s contest will be Norcross’ unit versus the Wolf Pack’s defensive front, which has more size than last season and held up well in a 72-19 season-opening win over Portland State. While no coaches remain on the Wolf Pack’s staff from the last time Norcross was an assistant, one of his former coaches from his Nevada playing days – Angus McClure – re-joined the team this offseason. McClure remembered Norcross as a sharp and diligent worker who was destined to coach.

“He was a blood-and-guts guy, a high-effort guy, a tremendous motor, a really intense player,” McClure said. “He was an overachiever like a lot of the Union guys are for the most part. It’s been fun to follow his coaching career. I’ve kept in contact throughout the years and we usually visit in the summer time. I kept up with him when he went to Fresno and made this jump to Vandy. I still talk to him quite often.”

Norcross has plenty of family and friends in Northern Nevada. The 41-year-old said he hopes the Wolf Pack wins every game it plays this season – with the exception of this week. But what about his family that still lives in town?

“Who they tell me who they’re rooting for and who they’re actually rooting for may be two different things,” Norcross said with a laugh. “Hopefully blood is thicker than water. My brother and sisters both live in Spanish Springs and I have a cousin that lives in Reno and I have a lot of family there who wear Wolf Pack gear all the time. But hopefully they have Vanderbilt gear on this weekend.”

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at cmurray@rgj.com or follow him on Twitter @MurrayRGJ.